Renleigh Kensington
I did make him sign a contract.
Well, not a proper one. Just a mock up one. And he didn't even know that it wasn't legit. But he signed it, anyway.
That was kind of funny because he literally did it just to get to spend time with me. I mean, what the fuck? Who would do that? Well, apparently Harry Styles would.
He wasted no time, either. He turned up two days later at my building with a box of doughnuts and a strangely happy grin, dressed in a navy coloured suit, nails painted and fingers wrapped in rings. He asked if I would go to dinner with him over the weekend because he would have absolutely no time until Saturday. I was close to saying no but then curiosity got the best of me and before I could have even controlled my mouth, it just agreed.
This time around, I told him my address. He said he would find out one way or another so it didn't really matter if he got it from me or found it on his own. Since that was pretty creepy, I just gave it up although I knew he wouldn't come up to my floor, anyway.
He made us exchange numbers, too, so when he was outside, he could ring me. And he did. I saved his contact as 'Styles CEO' which made me wonder what I was in his. Not that it meant anything. I was just curious as per usual.
Visually, his grin grew when he noticed me push the door open and reveal myself in my long, red coat. I had a white pencil skirt and white turtle neck underneath. That made my outfit look pure compared to his all black. Although, the rainbows on his boots made it a little more colourful.
"Kensington, you look lovely," he complimented me like it was second nature. It was almost like he truly treated this whole month ahead of us as if we were in a relationship. Whether I was going to or not was a mystery for everyone. Then again, it was highly unlikely.
"Styles," I smirked as he put his hand out for me to take. That strangely reminded me of the night in Italy when he picked me up from my hotel and helped me in the car. Now, he did the same. I couldn't lie – he was a proper gentleman.
We had a driver and that was nice. Although, so was the sight of Styles driving. I guess men in general looked proper fit when they sat behind a wheel. Or was that just me being bare minimum? I had no idea.
"I didn't know you lived around here," he mentioned to me a little into the journey.
"I never told you, of course, you didn't know," I sassed him out a little and he chuckled under his breath.
"Must say, it is a very posh area."
"Because where you live is not?" I asked back with my eyebrows arched.
"Alright, maybe..."
"Oh, not just maybe," I laughed. "You have pure gate security and whatnot."
"I guess I do need to keep my shit safe, don't I?" he asked and I hummed.
I knew if I'd ever move I would do it the way he did. Extra security on everything and anything. But that was all in the future. As of right now, I was more than content with my penthouse and although having a proper home must have been nice, it wasn't for me.
Sooner than expected, we had arrived to the restaurant. I had heard of the place before but never personally went so this was going to be an experience in itself.
When we got out of the car, I put my coat on and flicked my hair out from under it. Styles spoke to his driver and then turned towards me once they were done. He placed his arm out for me and I linked mine through it like we did in Italy. This was all so... similar.
"Are you good?" he asked me.
"Yeah."
"Are you not cold, no?"
"No," I replied. Why the hell was he asking me so many questions? Damn.
"Alright. That's good. Because I have booked us a table upstairs. Outside."
"Oh, fancy," I smirked and he let out a low chuckle.
"Good evening," the waiter at the front welcomed us with a warm smile. I reciprocated it and waited for my 'date' to take the lead.
"Good evening, we have a table booked under Styles," he told the employee who took it up on himself to check.
"That's right," he smiled. "Josephine here will show you to your table."
"Alright, thank you very much," Styles said.
"Thank you," I added with a smile and then we followed the girl.
She took us up in a lift until we reached the top floor. There were a few tables occupied already although ours seemed to be away from them. That made me feel at ease because I didn't really enjoy eating so close to others. I found it to be a bit invasive even though the chances of them actually listening to other people's conversations were low.
"Anything specific that catches your eye?" he asked me after we were left alone to decide what we wanted to drink. If I wanted to be funny, I would have answered his question by declaring 'you' but because I wasn't sure if it would have been as funny as I thought it would be, I just decided to swallow it.
"The view is not bad," I nodded towards the side. The sun was really low, almost not even up, but it was still a little orange. It was stunning. The yellows, oranges mixed together were gorgeous. I couldn't help myself when I took my phone out and snapped a photo of it.
"C'mon," he stood up and stretched his hand out towards me.
"What are you doing?" I looked up at him with furrowed eyebrows but he just smiled. The soft wind blew on his hair and it moved a little.
"Please?"
I sighed and gave in. I pushed my chair out and stood up like he did. I really had no idea what he wanted to do. But then he took my phone from me and positioned me to stand near the glass railing, my back towards the sunset.
"Fuck off," I laughed and he didn't say anything just took photos of me. "Styles, stop," I placed my hand in front of my body as I tried to cover up the camera but he just reached out and took a hold of my hand.
"You just stand there and look pretty, alright?" he questioned as he pushed me back. I felt eyes on me. Like, I felt them stare. And it made me feel so embarrassed. I hated unwanted attention. "Get rid of the frown for us," he mumbled.
"I-, can we not?" I asked as I walked back over to him and took a seat. I inhaled deeply and hid my face in the palms of my hands.
"Hey, what is it?" he questioned. "I thought it was-, I just thought... hey, you look so good on these," he carried on as he squatted down next to me. My eyes travelled towards the screen of my phone and I saw some parts of the photo myself. "Oh, I love this one! You're proper smiling on it!"
And I was. It was literally just when I told him to fuck off. No one ever took good candids of me, there was no one who would have done it for me so this was... nice. Seeing myself from someone else's point of view was strange.
When I finally gave up and felt like no one was looking anymore, I noticed he went back to his seat. He had both his and my phone in his hands although when he realised, I had my attention on him, he gave mine back to me.
"What's wrong?" he asked me curiously. "Did that make you feel uncomfortable?"
"A bit," I admitted. He gave me a sad smile although he couldn't reply because the waitress was back at our table.
"What can I start you off with tonight?"
"We'll... we, um haven't decided yet," he stumbled up on his words as his eyes travelled to me. "What would you like to drink?"
"Surprise me," I decided to say as I kept my gaze on him. He smirked and cleared his throat before he ordered us a bottle of wine. I knew which one it was. The most expensive one. It caught my attention when my eyes skimmed through the list.
After the waitress left us, I kept looking at the menu. I didn't want to talk about how uncomfortable I felt before. I just... disliked the attention. Sometimes, I thrived off of it, other times – much like now – it made me feel sick. It was so embarrassing to stand there and let Styles take pictures of me, it genuinely made me sweat and wonder if others around us made fun of me. Hell, I didn't wonder. I fucking knew.
I mean, who the hell goes to an expensive restaurant and acts like a damn Instagram model or something? Someone who wishes to get made fun of.
For the most part, I came off pretty confident, I mean, I tried my bloody best but certain situations brought unnecessary stress into my life. I didn't like referring to it as others do, the stupid word starting with an 'a' would have made me feel like I had something wrong with me. And, to be honest, that in itself stressed me out a lot.
This didn't mean I had anything against people who were diagnosed with this. I was just afraid of it. I didn't want to have it on paper. It kind of scared me.
"Look, I'm really sorry about that... I didn't mean to make you feel out of your comfort zone. I thought it would be a nice idea to- to take a few photos of you because I know you enjoy posting stuff on your social media accounts and you look so pretty tonight and the view..." he rambled on and on although half of it didn't even make it into my brain.
"No, it's... it's okay," I said eventually. Although it wasn't. For me. It wasn't okay. I wasn't okay with the way I reacted but that was one of the many things I couldn't keep under control so it made sense. But still pissed me off a lot. "So, um, are we going all out with the courses or just having a main?"
"Whatever you'd like," he smiled at me as he most likely caught onto the fact, I didn't want to speak of that incident from moments ago.
"I think I'll uh, just stick to a main course tonight," I let him know. I didn't want to order so much. I felt kind of bad. Out of place. Badly. I needed to do something I knew how to. I needed to be in control of something. And since everything kind of slipped out of my hands or was mainly in his, I relied on the food.
"That's fine," he said. "I think I'll just get that, too," he smiled and I nodded.
The waitress came back with our drink then took our orders. The wine was nice once I tasted it. The taste was rather sour, a tiny bit bitter but nothing too bad that would have made me want to stop consuming it.
"You're strangely quiet. You talked a bit more in Italy, I reckon."
"Am I?" I asked back although I knew I was. It all felt weird. Why the hell did I come up with this date month? Oh, right. So I could let him down easier.
"Yeah, a little," he chuckled. "I guess I'm not the best company, either. I, um, I'm not too sure what to say."
"What happened before wasn't your fault. It was mine. I just don't really do well under unwanted attention, which, I know, is shocking," I let out a forced chuckle as my eyes focused on the glass that my fingers rested around. My long acrylic nails clicked against the glass here and there and they made a satisfying sound.
"Why would that be shocking?" he questioned, genuinely interested. It was nice to hear that as opposed to him agreeing by saying that it was shocking. I half expected him to just nod to it. But instead, he decided to ask me that and it put him in such a different light. "I don't think anyone feels comfortable under unwanted attention."
"I suppose... but that before. Most people wouldn't have reacted that way. It was kind... stupid of me," I admitted but still didn't look up at him. Instead, I picked up my drink and took a sip.
"Stop invalidating your own feelings, Kensington. It's okay to feel the way you do, you know?"
"I'm not doing that," I fought. How would he have known? If anything, he shouldn't have been so accepting of my damn actions. No one before said anything like that to me after I did something and felt bad about it. They just agreed or didn't even hear me out.
"You are," he said again. "Listen, I don't know much about your past, about what happened to you that made you so closed off but it's important that you know that everything you're feeling is important and valid, okay? The more you shut it out or push it away, the more it will bug you and make you feel absolutely terrible about yourself. You can't do that."
"I guess..." I replied as I had no idea what else to say. Never have I dealt with my emotions properly simply because I didn't know how to, really.
"Alright. I can tell this is not a fun topic for you, and honestly, I doubt we should be talking about this during dinner," he ended the conversation again. He was kind of fast at noticing what was sensitive and what he shouldn't have pushed further than needed. I appreciated that. "So, how was your day? Anything interesting?"
"Unless a pizza delivery guy ringing my bell at seven am is anything interesting, it was a basic day."
"Wait, you were home at seven? You're usually at your office at that time, aren't you?"
"Yeah I just had something to take care of so I couldn't leave in time," I kept it short.
"You really do keep stuff personal, don't you?" he asked me with a genuine curiosity in his voice. He placed his elbow on the table and rested his chin on his fist. "That's kind of cool."
"How?" I chuckled. The way he suddenly made me feel at ease was crazy for my brain to comprehend. The rumours about him having his way with words was once again proven correct. No matter how hard I have tried to deny the fact that he was a lovely person, I couldn't. He was born this way, I thought.
"You have the power to keep your life away from the media. Not many people are able to be known for their work and their work only."
"You are," I said which was true. There wasn't much about him out there, either. Obviously, a bit more since his whole family was pretty famous but other than that, nothing that shouldn't have been out there.
"I suppose," he nodded. "But you are just next level, I reckon. With me, it's like I've been known kind of since I was born, you know? With my parents' business getting out there and everything, my mum kind of got into the newspapers and stuff at the time because it was kind of a big deal," he began to explain. "Then that compared to how you came from a family that is not known at all and they are still living like their daughter and sibling is not in the TV or newspapers all the time is kind of sick. I wish I could've grown up without all this wealth and attention."
"For sure. I mean, I'm so grateful for the way I was able to keep this all together. My parents never wanted anything to do with this kind of lifestyle. Sure, the income is really good and compared to how we used to be so tight on money, it is a true blessing that I can now help them. Obviously, they have their own jobs, one of them just got a new one, actually, and so we are finally in a position where we can kind of lean back on the weekends and just do nothing. Which is really nice," I began to ramble and I didn't even notice at first. I didn't put my trust into people this quickly, sometimes I didn't even bother trying. But with Styles there, so open to listen to me and sort of help me feel better about myself, it was kind of hard not to give a bit of me up.
"That's amazing. I'm really glad to hear that," he smiled genuinely. If I was going to remember one thing from tonight it would definitely be the fact that Harry Styles is a genuine man. My CEO to CEO kind of hatred towards him blocked just how nice he actually is. However, I guess that was why I never crossed that professional line with employees and clients.
Once you see them in a different light, the way you treat them completely changes. From a business point of view, that is the worst thing that could happen as it causes trouble at work. Other employees begin to notice when someone gets treated differently and nothing good comes out of it. The others will begin to slack and not put in the effort just because an individual is getting a special treatment.
I'm not speaking from experience, thankfully, but I have heard a fair share of stories from my lecturers at university about this. In particular, this was one important thing I had taken away from my classes and it truly benefited me in the long run.
Now, Styles and I were not working together. He was no employee of mine which shouldn't have been a problem however no one knew if we'd ever end up working together. Hopefully, not because he was a competition, I needed to get rid of and that didn't change just because I suddenly allowed him a month to make me trust him. Which, by the way, was the stupidest fucking thing I have done recently.
Why did I tell him that? Why was I on this date with him? Why was I proper opening up to him? Well, to the best of my ability. But still... why. Why. Why. Why.
I was digging a massive hole for myself to fall into which then he would fill back up and with that bury me alive, too. Because there was only one way this was going to take us.
And that was deep down.
• • •
a.n.
so that's the first official date i guess??? it obvs wasn't gonna be perfect, that'd have been too good or maybe i'm just too cruel to let them be fully happy lol
don't forget to vote and comment hunties xx